After enjoying a brief hiatus from the show, Jimmy Kimmel came back swinging when he returned to Live Monday evening. The late night host railed against President Trump‘s recent tariffs that left the market in shambles and the measles outbreak that is affecting children across the country.
As the late night host put it on the show: “Stocks are down, measles are up.”
He pinned the blame for the measles outbreak on Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who only recently changed his tune on the effects of vaccines as the measles outbreak climbed to almost 600 cases in America by some reports.
“Who could have guessed that hiring a vaccine denier as Secretary of Health and canning the experts in charge of tracking infectious disease would be a negative?” Kimmel joked.
He then pointed to the recent death of an eight-year-old girl in Texas who died from measles pulmonary failure, marking the second death of the year. According to reports, she had no underlying health conditions. Kennedy even made an appearance at her funeral service, but that wasn’t enough to impress Kimmel.
“Another child died of measles in Texas which is especially awful because that doesn’t have to happen,” Kimmel lamented. “We have a way to prevent this from happening.”
He continued, “RFK Jr actually took a break from working on his pecs to go to the funeral service, to say what, I don’t know. Oops? But we seem to be pedaling backwards in every area of American life.”
Kennedy has since advocated in favor of the vaccine as the number of cases continue to climb.
“The most effective way to prevent the spread of measles is the MMR vaccine,” he said in a post on X. He reported that there are “642 confirmed cases of measles across 22 states, 499 of those in Texas.”
Kennedy vowed to continue working with Texas Governot Abbott to offer resources through the CDC to ease the spread of measles.
Jimmy Kimmel Live airs weeknights at 11:35/10:35c on ABC.
